(AP) – Supporters of a proposed early voting period in Missouri are gathering petition signatures to try to put the issue on the November ballot.

Campaign treasurer Matthew Dameron said Monday that organizers are using volunteers and professional petition circulators to collect signatures of registered voters before the May 4 deadline.

Dameron is a former chief of staff to Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster. He says Koster has provided political advice to the early voting campaign.

The proposed constitutional amendment would let voters cast ballots in person or by mail beginning six weeks before a general election. Current law allows absentee voting only under certain circumstances, such as when people can’t get to the polling place because they will be out of town or are ill or disabled.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma pharmacy has agreed not to provide Missouri with a made-to-order drug for an inmate’s execution.

Court documents filed Monday show that death row inmate Michael Taylor has reached an agreement with The Apothecary Shoppe.

According to the documents, the Tulsa pharmacy will not will not prepare or provide pentobarbital or any other drug for use in Taylor’s execution. The documents ask a judge to dismiss the case.

Taylor’s attorney, Matt Hellman, says the pharmacy has not already provided any such drug to the Missouri Department of Corrections for Michael’s execution.

Taylor’s execution is scheduled for Feb. 26. He pleaded guilty to abducting, raping and stabbing to death a 15-year-old Kansas City girl in 1989.

4:30 p.m.  (AP) – An Oklahoma pharmacy has submitted a sealed response to a Missouri death row inmate’s lawsuit accusing it of illegally providing Missouri with a made-to-order drug to be used in his lethal injection.

The Apothecary Shoppe filed its response to Michael Taylor’s lawsuit last week after getting permission from U.S. District Judge Terrence Kern to keep its response sealed. Kern has scheduled a Tuesday hearing in Tulsa to weigh arguments about whether it should remain sealed.

Taylor says the Tulsa pharmacy is compounding pentobarbital and illegally selling it out of state. The drug’s sole licensed manufacturer refuses to sell it for use in executions.

The pharmacy hasn’t acknowledged that it supplies the drug, citing a Missouri law barring the disclosure of the names of those on the state’s execution team.

 (AP) – Authorities are investigating a homicide involving inmates at the Jefferson City Correctional Center.

The Cole County sheriff’s office said Monday that inmate Daniel Skipper was killed Sunday in his prison cell. The 65-year-old man had been serving a sentence for statutory rape and sodomy.

The sheriff’s office identified the suspect in Skipper’s slaying as his cellmate – 23-year-old Ryan Vaught, who was serving a sentence for armed criminal action and assault. He has been placed in a segregated unit.

The sheriff’s office said inmates in a neighboring cell reported hearing a violent disturbance. The sheriff’s office says Skipper was found with multiple wounds to his face and scalp and had a piece of fabric wrapped around his neck.

An autopsy is planned for Tuesday.

 (AP) – The state of Missouri faces the loss of nearly $70 million this year in tobacco settlement payments due to a unique pricing advantage enjoyed by some cigarette companies.

Missouri is the only state which signed a landmark settlement agreement more than 15 years ago to not eliminate a loophole allowing small cigarette manufacturers and retailers to avoid making escrow payments. The payments are required of companies that didn’t sign the settlement.

State lawmakers have refused requests by two Missouri attorney generals over the past 12 years to neutralize the pricing advantage. And a federal arbitration panel found that Gov. Jay Nixon neglected to file lawsuits against the smaller tobacco companies to force them to pay into the escrow fund when he was attorney general.

Missouri could also lose tens of millions in tobacco money each year for at least seven years.

 (AP) – Missouri health officials are seeking organizations to participate in a summer food program providing meals to children and teens during the summer months.

The food service program helps children during a time when schools’ breakfast and lunch programs are not operating. It covers people up to age 18.

Funding for the food program comes from the federal government. Schools, faith-based organizations, camps, local governments and private nonprofit agencies are eligible to participate. They must be located in areas where at least half the children are eligible for free and or reduced-price meals.

Organizations can submit applications to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services from March 1 through May 15.

(AP) — The University of Missouri-Kansas City and the University of Kansas are competing for law school students.

Missouri-Kansas City’s law school has provided in-state undergraduate tuition for most Kansas residents for four years. Now, the KU School of Law is responding.

The Kansas school will use a new scholarship program to allow residents of 11 Missouri counties to pay the equivalent of in-state tuition — $19,623 a year instead of $33,067 for out-of-state students.

Missouri-Kansas City’s law school does not formally waive out-of-state tuition but nearly all of those students get in-state tuition rates.

The competition is partly because fewer students are enrolling in law schools. The Kansas City Star reports 68 percent of schools accredited by the American Bar Association reported lower first-year enrollment in 2013.